Wednesday, January 17, 2018

A Quick Comparison Between a DSLR and iPhone 7+

When it was time for me to upgrade my phone I asked around for the advice. Many people talked about how amazing the cameras were on the newer phones and I ended up going with the iPhone 7+. I am someone who really values quality photos and generally carries my DSLR with me if we are going on an outing – it's a Canon 5D Mark III which is a pretty decent one. I use my camera almost every single day at home as well. I was curious whether I would be able to leave my DSLR behind more frequently and solely use my iPhone 7+ to capture images and video.

I realize this is not a fair comparison.

The iPhone 7+ has a 12 megapixel camera (7 megapixels for selfie mode) and my Canon 5D has a 20 megapixel one but let me just share a few pros and cons of the iPhone 7+ in comparison.

If you are looking for a scientific breakdown, this is not it.

I'm giving you my initial thoughts and feelings as a photographer after using the iPhone 7+ for two weeks now. In all of my photo comparisons I will show the iPhone photos first. I was using my 50mm f/1.4 lens on my DSLR.

The iPhone 7+ does shoot relatively well in low light.

In comparison to my previous iPhone 5S it is significantly clearer and brighter.

iPhone 7+ image indoors

DSLR

The iPhone photo is much grainier.

Upon first glance the photos do not appear all that different. However, zooming in there is a remarkable difference. The iPhone photo on the left is quite grainy, noisy and pixelated in comparison. It doesn't matter if I have it in "High Efficiency" or "Most Compatible" mode.

Here is another example so you can see the difference with her eyelashes and freckles when I cropped an image.

iPhone 7+ indoors

DSLR indoors

Portrait Mode is nifty but...

One of the major selling points to the iPhone 7+ is using Portrait Mode. It allows the background to become blurred which is called bokeh. You have to be a certain distance away to utilize it which does make things a bit tricky. I was all ready to take my photo and it kept saying "Move further away". Sorry my subject wasn't staying in place as I was trying to figure out where to stand "further away" but you can see it does a decent job. The colour is off so I'm assuming one would edit their photo on their iPhone photo using Snapseed or some other app.

Portrait Mode on iPhone 7+

50 mm f/1.4 on DSLR

Another tricky piece of the iPhone7+ or 8+ is the size.

It is difficult to try to hold the camera and press the button to take a selfie like below – maybe I just have exceptionally small hands?! Also, it sticks out of all of my pockets and I'm scared it's going to fall out. That said, I love the bigger screen and when I look at my old phone it looks like a tic tac in comparison.

I appreciate the ease of taking video and uploading it.

I never did master it with my DSLR so that is a win.

My conclusion at this point is that I will be using the iPhone 7+ camera more than I used to.

For example, my Instagram feed used to be almost all DSLR photos but now I'm more iPhone photos in there. For special family outings or trips I will most definitely take my DSLR along as I don't find it cumbersome especially with just a 50 mm on it. I understand most people aren't as concerned with their photos but for me, someone who enjoys documenting our lives and utilizing photography skills, I'll continue to work on using the iPhone 7+ while taking my real camera along.

If you are looking to take your photos to the next level using your DSLR I've got some tips for you here. Happy photo taking! For those of you that do use your phones for photography, I'd love to know what you do to get the best photos. Are you a DSLR user? What have you felt about the newer phone cameras coming out?

Phone photos look fine on a phone or maybe a 4"square print, but to print anything larger than that and you really notice the poorer resolution. For the most part, I use my phone for Instagram photos only.

Hello!

Hi, I'm Louise! I'm a mom of three (and sometimes more through fostering) and wife of super chef and science teacher, Gary. I love the great outdoors, photography, and spending time together as a family. Oh, and silence.